Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus.
Description of the Related Art
Some conventional image forming apparatuses have a PC-FAX function, which is a function of performing fax transmission of a document file on a personal computer (PC). Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-235773 discusses a configuration for converting a received document file into a bitmap image, and performing fax transmission of the bitmap image.
In the PC-FAX function, a fax driver operating on the PC converts a document file to be subjected to fax transmission, into a monochrome binary image file in a format such as Tagged Image File Format Modified Modified Read (TIFF-MMR) format. The fax driver then transmits this image file to an image forming apparatus, together with information indicating fax transmission destination. The image forming apparatus dials the fax transmission destination received from the PC, and performs coding processing for allowing communication of the image file by a fax line. The image forming apparatus then transmits the image file.
Further, among image forming apparatuses, some products have a BOX function. The BOX function is, for example, a function of storing image data in a BOX, or a function of synthesizing one or more pieces of image data.
The function of storing image data in a box is a function of converting document data specified at a PC into image data, and storing the image data in a BOX. This function is referred to as PDLtoBOX, in the present specification.
In the PDLtoBOX function, first, a user selects a document file desired to be stored and designates a box number to be used for storage in a printer driver, at a PC. The printer driver then converts the document file into page description language (PDL) data, and transmits the PDL data to an image forming apparatus, together with the box number to be used for storage. The image forming apparatus analyzes the PDL data received, from the PC, and converts the PDL data into image data. The image forming apparatus then stores the image data in a BOX corresponding to the designated box number.
Furthermore, among image forming apparatus, some products have a BOXtoFAX function, which is a function of selecting image data stored in a BOX, and performing fax transmission of the selected image data.
The BOXtoFAX function is implemented as follows. First, a user dials a designated fax transmission destination. Next, an image forming apparatus transmits image data stored in a designated box, having been subjected to coding processing that allows communication by a fax line.
On the other hand, in recent years, a technique called Internet Printing Protocol (IPP) FaxOut Service has been devised.
In this IPP FaxOut Service, the IPP is used to provide information such as fax transmission destination information, an image processing method for fax image data, and cover page information. For fax data to be transmitted, data in any of various PDL formats such as Printer Working Group Raster (PWG-RASTER) and Portable Document Format (PDF) can be used.
In the PC-FAX function, the fax driver is configured to convert a document file on a PC into image data to perform fax transmission, thereby enabling execution of the fax transmission, even if an image forming apparatus is not provided with an image-data conversion function. Further, in some image data conversion, binarization processing is performed. In that case, in an image forming apparatus, it is not necessary to generate binary data for performing fax transmission.
However, in the IPP FaxOut Service, fax transmission data to be received from a PC is PDL data, i.e., the fax transmission data is not necessarily image data. Moreover, the image data is not binary image data in some cases.
As a result, to perform fax transmission with the IPP FaxOut Service in the image forming apparatus, it is necessary for the IPP FaxOut Service of the image forming apparatus to perform processing for conversion to image data, which is performed on the PC side in the PC-FAX function. In other words, it is necessary to perform processing for converting the PDL data generated on the PC side into image data, in the IPP FaxOut Service.